The present invention is related to telecommunication systems and method for using such. In particular, the present invention is related to systems and methods for providing multi-contact communications.
In a typical application, a telephone number is entered into a telephone handset and a ring signal is created on another telephone handset associated with entered telephone number. A user can then answer the ringing telephone and initiate a two party communication. Performing communication between three or more users is, however, more complicated.
In a typical conferencing situation, one party contacts a telecommunication service provider to setup a conference call. The telecommunication service provider provides a telephone number and a conference ID number to the initiating party. Then, the initiating party contacts each of the other prospective conference participants and provides them with the telephone number, the conference ID, and the time that the conference will take place. At the prescribed time, each of the conference participants calls the number, and subsequently provides the conference ID. Once this is done, the participants are placed in joint communication. While such an approach is useful, it is both cumbersome and expensive.
In some cases, more sophisticated telephone handsets provide for conferencing in multiple parties. Such conferencing can include an initiating user dialing one prospective conference participant and establishing a two way communication with that participant. Subsequently, the initiating user dials another prospective conference participant on a separate line to establish two way communication with that participant. Then, a conference option is selected which causes the three parties to be included on the same call. In addition to the complexity of the aforementioned approach, such conference calls typically may only connect a limited number of parties such as three.
Further, such an approach is often complicated where a cellular telephone is used to initiate the conference. In part this is because creating the conference often requires reading menus and pushing buttons while at least a portion of the participants are already joined. This can require the initiator to remove the cellular telephone from their ear to see the keyboard and display. While in this situation, confusion can arise and previously joined participants my hang up. This potential confusion is illustrated by the complexity of processes that must be performed in an exemplary cellular telephone that requires an initiator to: (1) make a normal call to the first participant; (2) press an OPTIONS key, (3) scroll to NEW CALL and press SELECT, (4) Recall or enter the number of the next participant that is to be included, (6) press call, (7) after the next participant answers, press the OPTIONS key, and (8) scroll to CONFERENCE and press Select. Such complexity causes many users to simply disregard the conference functionality of a given telephone.
Thus, there exists a need in the art to address these and other problems.